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What's happening?

 

We're introducing a £1.50 monthly fee for customers who choose to have paper bills. This change will help us to be more efficient and support our commitment to sustainability. 

 

This change will be live and visible on December bills, which will give customers time to choose Paperless Billing if they want to.

 

We’ll be writing to our current Paper Billing customers to let them know about these changes. We'll send customers a QR code, which will take them to a form where they can select paperless billing going forward.

Are there exceptions to this?


Yes, the following customers will stay on paper bills with no charge:

  • Customers on the Priority Services Register (PSR)
  • Customers who receive Adaptive Comms
  • Customers who we think should be on the PSR
  • Customers who might potentially be financially vulnerable

We won’t ask these customers to choose to change to Paperless Billing.

 

Thanks,

The OVO Team

 

Looks like 

  • Customers who customers who might potentially be financially vulnerable

Might need to be updated to

  • Customers who we think might potentially be financially vulnerable

Or alternatively

  • Customers who might potentially be financially vulnerable

 

We’ll be writing to our current Paper Billing customers to let them know about these changes. We'll send customers a QR code, which will take them to a form where they can select paperless billing going forward.

 

Err,

Do you really think that most customers still on paper billing even know what a QR code is, let alone how to use one?

OK  you do mention exceptions for those on PSR etc,
But I have got my disability/welfare advisor hat on here - and know that many who have paper billing struggle with computers, which is why they still have paper billing.

Not sure this change is aimed at those customers though - the exemptions do seem pretty wide and would probably cover quite a few of them.

I’d say it’s more about those who are capable of using Paperless without issue but don’t.

Hi @Blastoise186,

 

Thanks for the correction there! 

 

Hi @Nukecad,

 

Do you really think that most customers still on paper billing even know what a QR code is, let alone how to use one?

OK  you do mention exceptions for those on PSR etc,
But I have got my disability/welfare advisor hat on here - and know that many who have paper billing struggle with computers, which is why they still have paper billing.

 

This is a valid point. We’d advise any customers who may be worried or struggling with this change to get in touch with the Support team. They’d be able to help further with this. We hope this change won’t impact our most vulnerable customers too much as many of them would be excluded.

Just to point out what appears to be an outdated statement in an official help article:

“We email and post your OVO statements to you every month.”

 

“from 1st December 2024, we’ll start charging £1.50 a month for sending paper letters.”

+

“Going paperless helps save energy and stops paper waste”

= 

Going paperless does not save you money:  OVO will pocket the saving and pass it on to their share holders. You won’t see any of it. 

 

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-6748633/The-paper-bill-rip-Telecoms-giants-charging-36-year-posted-statements.html

 

 

Actually @origami , I respectfully disagree.

There is a cost to print the bills, stuff them into envelopes and post them out. Given the rates Royal Mail charge these days even with volume discounts, most of that £1.50 will be gobbled up just by getting the Postie to stick the envelope through your letterbox.

The profits from this for OVO? Almost certainly 0p.

For those using Paperless Billing there is NO saving for OVO - it merely means that OVO doesn’t have to also incur the cost of posting them out on top of paying for a billing system that’s perfectly capable of emailing them out en masse every month.

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